January 23

Ugh. Today turned into a lousy day.

My morning trot was fun. There hadn't been a lot of people out exercising yesterday because of the snow, but they were back again this morning. Not all the sidewalks are clear, so the man I sometimes trot with was running on the road. I stayed on the sidewalk like I'm supposed to, but I flew over the places that were still snowy. He said that he wished he could fly. I told him that there were nice men like Mark who could help him get a pilot's license and then he could. He laughed and said that that wasn't what he meant.

When I got back to the dorm room, Peggy said that she had to go to Walgreens (which is not very far) because she was out of tampons. I didn't know what those were, so she explained it to me. It turns out humans go in and out of heat just like ponies, except that they do it all year long. (That's also why she smelled different yesterday, I bet.)

I couldn't really think of anything I needed from Walgreens, but I thought it would be interesting to go. I didn't have anything else I was planning to do, anyway, besides playing in the snow, and I could put that off. The snow would still be here when we got back.

Walgreen's is down the hill at the bottom of campus, and around the corner, and Peggy said she'd heard that it used to be a Burger King, which is a restaurant, but then they had made it into a store. Just like Meijer, there are big glass doors that know when you're coming and open up for you, and once you get inside there is shelf upon shelf of stuff. Humans like to have lots of choices of things to buy, and I still wasn't sure what kinds of things they needed and what they didn't.

Peggy knew where she was going, so I followed her. She went around to the back of the store and picked up a little blue box with a yellow end. I was kind of disappointed that this was all we'd come for, and asked if it was okay if I looked around the store a bit, 'cause I was interested in what other kinds of things were for sale here. There weren't so many people crowded in like there had been at Meijer, so I didn't feel as overwhelmed by it all.

She thought that was a good idea, and started taking me on a little tour of the store. There were boxes filled with pills for every imaginable purpose, and she said that in back, there were more pills that you had to use a prescription from a doctor to get.

There were shelves of beauty supplies and shampoos and soaps and clever elastic hair ties. Peggy snickered when she saw them, and said that on Earth when people tie their hair back it's called a pony tail. And I thought about buying some, even though it would be strange to have my mane tied back, and my tail hung just fine on its own.

Then we went and looked at the food, and Peggy decided that she needed to get some Doritos and Pop Tarts as well, and that she should have gotten a basket to carry things she wanted in.

Well, I knew right where those were; I'd seen them on the way in, so I said I'd get one. She asked if I was sure, and I nodded. They had little handles that you could carry in your mouth, just like a proper wicker basket.

It was a little tricky to pull one out of the pile; I had to stand on my hind hooves to get the handles but I managed. But when I moved back, I accidentally bumped into a man's legs.

He was wearing a nice suit, like Mister Salvatore was when I first met him, and I muttered an apology to him.

He spat at me! And then he said that when Trump was president he was gonna build a wall to keep us all out (how would that work?) and I dropped the basket and took a step back and bumped into the counter.

When he moved forward, I reared and spread out my wings, and that was enough to get him to back up, which gave me enough room to get free. I know I'm not supposed to fly inside, but he started yelling about goddamned ponies and bleeding liberals and his face was getting red, so I flew up to the counter and told him that I had every right to be here. Princess Celestia said so.

By then, one of the Walgreens workers had heard the commotion, and he came running up to see what was going on. The angry man said that he wasn't ever going to shop here again if they were letting livestock into their store.

Peggy came running up along with another store employee, and pretty soon she was yelling at the angry man while the two employees tried to calm things down.

He finally stormed out of the store, and I saw him get into his car and start it up—he'd left it right in front of the front doors. I went to pick up the basket, but Peggy shook her head and said that we were leaving.

She bought her tampons and then the two of us went out the front door. I saw the angry man's car was right next to the door—he hadn't left like he was supposed to have—and before either of us could react, he threw a cup of coffee at us and then raced off into the street.

Peggy shouted that he was a motherfucking cocksucking asshole and that if he had any balls at all he'd come back and fight like a real man, but he was too far away to hear her. Then she said that she was sorry for swearing in front of me, and that we were going to go back to campus.

Instead of going to our room, though, she went to Christine's room, because it was closer. On the way there, she asked me if I was okay, and if the man had hurt me at all. I said he hadn't; he'd just said lots of mean things.

Christine was surprised to see us, and surprised to see that Peggy was covered in coffee, so Peggy had to explain what had happened, and then said that she was going to take a shower and decide if she wanted to try and press charges.

She propped the bathroom door open and kept on talking while she was in the shower. I stretched out on the papasan and Christine sat with me while she talked back to Peggy. Since she was sitting with me, she ran her fingers through my mane and petted my coat. It was very nice of her, and helped calm me down.

Once Peggy was done in the shower, she had to borrow some of Christine's clothes, which didn't fit her very well. She's got bigger breasts and bigger hips than Christine, and she's a little shorter.

They decided that there wasn't any point in doing anything about it. They'd wind up spending most of Saturday talking to policemen, and probably nothing would come of it. I suggested that maybe I could tell Mister Salvatore and that he could get something done, and we all decided that was the best idea. He'd know what to do. He got me an ornithopter license; surely he could handle this.

Rather than go back to our room, Christine decided that we'd have fun in her room, so she got out some beer, and she and Peggy started to play a game on the television. It was called Mario Kart, and it was a racing game. They explained all the rules to me as they were playing, and Christine even decided that I could give it a try if I wanted to. I didn't have any luck with it; even with her holding the controller, there were too many buttons and I crashed a lot.

But it was fun watching them play it.

Throughout the day, some more people showed up, and pretty soon we had a game of euchre going, a couple of people playing Mario Kart, and a couple of other people just watching and talking. One of Christine's roommates, a girl named Cecilia who had frizzy hair that was a slightly oranger shade than Christine's, joined us, along with a pale girl with jet-black hair named Amanda. That was half of her roommates. Amanda said that I was really cute.

I was kinda able to forget about how the morning had been, ‘cause all of us were hanging out together and having fun, but then after dinner when we were back in our dorm room, I was in bed and it just kind of hit me again, how mean that man was for no reason! He didn't even know me.

Pretty soon I was crying, but trying to be quiet so I wouldn’t disturb Peggy—it wasn’t her fault she was dragged into it, and she had her clothes ruined by him—but she heard me anyway.

She got out of her bed and came over and got in with me and told me that it would be all right; Mister Salvatore (who I had sent a computer letter to) would take care of it, and that that guy was just an asshole. I told her how awful I felt, not only because of him, but because he’d ruined her clothes, and she said that was okay, at least nothing else had happened and then she hugged me until I was all cried out.

Next Chapter: January 24 [Fallout] Estimated time remaining: 64 Hours, 18 Minutes